Building a Personal Brand and the use of Social Networking in Job Search Page 1 of 14
Building a personal brand and the use of Social Networking in job search Contents Page What is a personal Brand? 3 Building a Personal Brand 4 Creating your Brand 6 Promoting your Brand 7 What is Social Networking? 7 Social Media - How can it work? 9 What Social Media Can I use? 9 o Linked in 9 o Facebook 10 o Twitter 10 o Skills Pages 12 o Blogs 12 o Personal Website 12 o Video Resume 13 o Google + 13 o Online Portfolio 13 Conclusion 13 Links to useful websites 14 Page 2 of 14
What is a Personal Brand? The term Personal Brand was first coined by Tom Peters in 1991 who identified that each individual possesses a personal brand that can be developed to become as strong as any corporate or product brand. The concept of Personal Branding recognises that each individual possesses a unique combination of attributes, values, strengths and passions that no other individual comprises. A personal Brand is your reputation, it is what you are remembered by, the impression that you make. It follows therefore, that you already have a Personal Brand, you just may not be aware of it yet! A personal brand should reflect your true character and should focus on the positives. It should be a definition of who you are and what you do. It should be consistently communicated across all platforms and media. In some respects your personal brand becomes your promise and needs to be credible in order to prove you can deliver on that promise. Your personal brand exists in the minds of others. It is about how your audience perceives you. Indeed it could be argued that your Personal Brand is more about your audience than you. It is effectively co-owned by them. They will have an interest in promoting it. Your brand has been defined by what you do every day. It is about how you interact with people, how you listen, how you keep your promises, your manners, your attitudes. A strong Personal Brand is potentially your greatest asset. It will afford you a greater margin of error (allowing your followers to grant you the benefit of the doubt more readily on those occasions where they may disagree with you). It should sell you as a product, share your values and vision and create value for the organisation. Your personal Brand will also form your identity on the internet. It is your visible presence that can be seen by anyone who chooses to look. Most senior figures in business will have such a presence although some may not even be aware of it. Page 3 of 14
Activity Discover your personal Brand online Try to google yourself to see if you can spot your visible presence on the internet. What can you find about yourself. How did it get there? Is it correct or does it mislead anyone who might be trying to find out about you? An online presence will require some maintenance and should be given as much focus as you would in preparing your CV. You may feel that having an online presence is more trouble than it is worth and if that is the case you will need to think seriously about closing down any facebook, Linked in and twitter accounts before you go any further. Your personal Brand will need to be maintained regardless or not of whether it can be found online Building a Personal Brand There are several stages to building a Personal Brand. A Personal Brand should reflect your true character. It is all about how others perceive you too many pictures of you partying on Facebook could create the wrong impression to a prospective employer. Managing this perception is therefore important. Let s look firstly, therefore, at your own self awareness. In order to effectively understand how you are perceived by others you first need to understand yourself be self aware. Ideally your self impression should match how other people perceive you. In order to build your brand you need to identify your niche what is your unique selling point. This may be a specialism, a particular area of expertise or an area that you are particularly passionate about. Understanding what your attributes, strengths and values are is crucial to developing your brand You will need a Personal Brand statement. This statement will appear as a description of you on social media sites. It will help to identify you to a prospective recruiter and help to sell your USP. It could set out your goals and / or your personal mission or vision. Page 4 of 14
ACTIVITY Personal Brand Having looked at what comprises your personal brand, have a go at defining your own 1. Take two minutes to think of a few words or short phrases you might use to describe your personal brand. At the end of the two minutes be prepared to tell the group the three words you have chosen and why. 2. Now Think about preparing a short Personal Brand Statement. -- This could be like the personal profile statement that you have used in your CV, but will need to be shorter as any social media will have limitations i.e twitter 160 characters. Personal Brand Statement 1 Personal Brand Statement 2 Page 5 of 14
Create your Brand You will need a business card. This will be needed when networking with people, both in the physical and virtual world. A physical business card should include: Your Name Your personal Brand statement A photo Your preferred contact details A virtual business card is one which can be sent via email or if you are a smart phone user, from your device either using SMS or Bluetooth. This method can be particularly useful at networking events and gets you straight into someone s device. Often these days smart phone users will have this facility or an App to do this as well as one for scanning conventional business cards straight into their device. Never go anywhere without your Business cards!! If you want to get really clever you could create a QR (Quick Response) code. A QR code added to your business card will be a really quick way to direct a prospective employer to online content such as your personal website or blog. QR codes are easy to create and there are a number of online resources that you can access to do this. An example QR code: You will also need a CV and covering letter. This can be used in a number of ways. You may have a resume that you post on your static profile on networking sites such as Linked in. You will also need a CV that you can target to specific roles and employers along with a covering letter that helps to sell you into the role. It is important to be aware of the skills that you possess and can take with you from job to job. These transferrable skills are what makes you the product that you have to sell and so it is important to be aware of what you have to offer. You may wish to find out more about your transferrable skills by taking an assessment. A free assessment can be found on the National Careers Service website. Called the Skills Health Check it comprises of a series of 10 short Psychometric assessments that combine to produce a detailed 25 page report which will help to highlight your areas of strength and areas for development. It can be accessed at: https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/tools/skillshealthcheck/pages/default.aspx Page 6 of 14
Promoting your Brand As with any brand it is all about marketing. Without marketing even the best brands would not get noticed or would take longer to become noticed. It is important to use a range of networking methods to promote your personal brand. Face to face networking as well as the use of social media are important to promote your Personal Brand. You may even consider presenting at offline events as these often will be reported in blogs. What is social networking? Firstly...what is networking? Networking can be defined as the act of...building mutually beneficial relationships in order to exchange information and knowledge. Strong networkers will never miss an opportunity to speak with as many people as possible about the field they work in or have an interest in exploring. By networking effectively you will discover job opportunities often in their developing stages, long before they are advertised. By staying in touch with developments within an industry or sector you will be able to gain more knowledge and be able to demonstrate this to other professionals in your field. You may also get opportunities to assist others. There might be opportunities to connect colleagues in your network to their mutual benefit and if so, that may lead to other benefits to you. Most jobs are filled before they ever reach job bulletin boards or agencies because if an employer has access to enough potentially strong candidates through networking, they can save time and money by not having to embark on an expensive recruitment campaign. It is all about not being afraid to discuss your situation with others that may be able to help you or in turn that you might be able to help. Networking is often associated with the jobsearch process and that can cause difficulties in itself if you are not comfortable or familiar with the idea or process of networking. The trick is to start early. Start to build your network and get used to networking before you need it. That way when the time comes it will be there to support you. Networking should be about approaching people in a non threatening way. Any approach should take their feelings and comfort into account and should be non-pressurised and not aimed at making them feel guilty. You should more be enquiring as to what opportunities exist within a sector or that field, rather than saying Gis a job...i can do that! (Yosser Hughes Boys from the Blackstuff) Social networking is a fairly recent phenomenon in its current form, but actually has been around a while. One of the first forms of social media was Friends re-united. This was one of the first ways in which people started to network using the internet. More recently we have seen the rise of a number of new types of social media. The most famous of these are probably Facebook and myspace, which traditionally have provided a social meeting place for friends and relatives to converse and keep in touch. Other variants have developed most notably LinkedIn which is regarded as more of a Professional form of Facebook, providing an opportunity for professionals to link to other business contacts as well as showcase their skills and achievements. Page 7 of 14
There is also twitter a live communication method used by many to keep others informed of their thoughts and activities. At first glance it appears to be largely celebrities and people with big egos who seem to think it is important to let everyone know what they are doing every moment of the day. However, on closer inspection it can be seen that Twitter is also used by many organisations and companies to undertake recruitment as it is seen as a cheap and effective communication method. Activity What is stopping you from networking? Spend a couple of minutes thinking about the barriers and concerns you have around networking? Think about the networking that you do already. What barriers you have that prevent you from networking? What are my networking strengths? What are my networking weaknesses? What networking opportunities could I take? What are the pitfalls of networking? Page 8 of 14
Social Media - How can it work? Networking is one of the most important tools available to job seekers. The use of social media is a way to network on a virtual basis and develop contacts that often we would not be able to meet in other circumstances. Social media enables us to keep in touch with colleagues and other professionals, to take part in discussions and importantly find out about opportunities whether explicitly posted or derived from understanding trends in the areas that you might be following. It is also estimated that between 45-60% of employers are using social media as a means of screening their applicants and in some cases using social media as a route to market to find suitable candidates for jobs. Social media monitoring service Reppler recently surveyed more than 300 hiring professionals to determine when and how job recruiters are screening job candidates on different social networks. The study found that more than 90% of recruiters and hiring managers have visited a potential candidate s profile on a social network as part of the screening process. And a whopping 69% of recruiters have rejected a candidate based on content found on his or her social networking profiles an almost equal proportion of recruiters (68%), though, have hired a candidate based on his or her presence on those networks. (2011) It is important therefore if you have any visible presence that it is managed effectively in order to maintain your Personal Brand. What social media can I use? Let s look at some social media tools and see how we can use them to improve our chances of effective job search. LinkedIn This supports the old adage that it is not what you know but who you know that counts. Networking at all levels is an important skill to be developed, maintained and used on a daily basis. Linked in provides a focal point for professionals to connect with work colleagues both past and present and colleagues and associates from other organisations whether they be customers, suppliers or other professionals in your field of interest. The linked in website provides a space for you to post your CV or resume and allows you to highlight your areas of specialism. You can also link to specialist interest groups which will provide you with an opportunity to take part in discussions with other professionals, read and submit papers and documents for others to comment upon and discuss and keep up to date with developments within your area of interest. Page 9 of 14
By submitting your own papers and initiating discussions on various subjects you are re-enforcing your presence on the internet. You are building upon your credibility and showing others that you are a player and not just an observer. You will be looking to establish yourself as an authority or expert in a particular field. If you are going to do this make sure that the content has some value for your readers. Don t do it just for the sake of doing it. It will be obvious that it is a half-hearted attempt! You will also find that Linked in will connect you to jobs related to the areas you have expressed an interest in. LinkedIn has a tool built in called LinkedIn skills which enables both job seekers and recruiters to search for different skills. To ensure that you rise up the skill rankings it is important to ensure that your skills are up to date and that you are active in any online conversations around the subject and have recommendations on your profile. Facebook Seen by many as more of a Social network than a professional one, but still worth paying some attention to. Facebook profiles are just as accessible to employers as part of your online presence as some of the other more formal methods. As Facebook has been around longer than LinkedIn and has developed more along the lines of being a method of keeping up with friends and family, it is less likely to be viewed as a credible method of finding work especially at a more senior level. That said, taking the idea of networking to its logical conclusion it could be argued that any form of networking is worthwhile. The obvious trap to fall into is to have incriminating photos and comments laying around on Facebook that might create the wrong impression of you to a prospective employer. If you have a Facebook page you might want to review it to ensure that there is nothing on it that might cause you embarrassment at a later date. As a networking tool it can be useful especially if you are looking for work. I have seen and heard of a number of people who have posted the phrase Hi all, just been made redundant...does anyone know of any good jobs out there? in their status bar. Hopefully all of their Friends will keep an eye out for them. Also companies are increasingly using Facebook as a route to market in terms of recruitment as it offers a cheap and effective way of communicating with people. Just typing jobs in the search box will link you to Facebook Apps dedicated to job search as well as opportunities that have been posted by companies. Also if you are interested in working for a particular company, try searching for them to see if they have a Facebook page. It may be the case that if they are recruiting there may be vacancies posted there. Page 10 of 14
Twitter Twitter is a different type of service characterised by the fact that any message can only be a maximum of 160 characters long (known as a Tweet ). Used by many in the media to provide a conduit to their fans or followers, but more and more being used by companies and professionals to communicate job vacancies and opportunities. Essentially Twitter can be used to communicate directly with an employer or recruitment professional. Example Twitter job contributors include @microjobs and #tweetmyjobs. Setting up an account is free and takes only a few minutes. It is possible to have multiple accounts so enabling you to separate business from leisure tweeting. In setting up an account make sure that you complete the areas in the profile. It will allow you to add Your Full name (which may be different from your Twitter name), your geographical location, a link to your website or blog and a short Biography (160 Characters maximum length!) This will most likeley be your personal Brand statement that we discussed earlier). You can also link your tweets to your facebook page should you wish to do so. There is also an opportunity to post a picture of yourself this helps to personalise it. Some may choose to use an Avatar an online representation of themselves (possibly a cartoon or a symbol that you can be associated with, like a company logo for example). Whatever you use it should be appropriate and show you off to best advantage. When Tweeting it is important to observe the following: Keep tweets: Professional Focus on your area of work Relevant tweet about your skills, interesting people you have met or articles you have read / written Employer friendly - tweet about your job search Focussed on establishing your expertise in your field Users should observe the following principles: Extol Senior management and executive values Don t sell engage Be a real human being Write well Commit Use it! Page 11 of 14
Skills Pages Skills Pages is a relatively new site with approximately 1m users to date focussing on the idea of a skills exchange i.e. I am looking for someone with this skill or I am somebody on the market with this skill to offer. Again the service is free and it only takes a few minutes to set up an account. When entering the site you are prompted to list your skill areas. The site then uses this to suggest interest groups that you may wish to follow and will direct you toward opportunities posted relating to the skill areas you have listed. The site also offers the opportunity for those looking to recruit to post their opportunities. The site has been designed to allow the user to maximise the links that they might have with other social media and offers to opportunity to link to Facebook, linked in and twitter accounts should you have them as well as optimise your profile to be found by search engines such as Google. At present not a huge number of users or vacancies being posted, but has the potential to become well used as a recruitment media. Blog A blog is a type of online journal which will provide you with the opportunity to comment on developments within your industry or profession, talk about any particular areas of your own personal interest, and post articles that you may have come across that you think might be useful or of interest to those who follow your blog. Be careful not to be too critical or political in a blog unless there is a reason to do so. Remember what you say her will be viewed by potential employers who may not share your views. A Blog gives you the opportunity to demonstrate your communication skills and should be as well written as possible. Personal Website A personal website should be a vehicle to promote you, your skills and achievements and become a focal point for all of your social media presences. It should include a resume, links to and feeds from any social media that you might be using, such as twitter and linked in, your blog, and a link to your Video Resume if you have one. Page 12 of 14
Video Resume Ideally this should be a short presentation ( a bit like the elevator pitch) that you can use to introduce yourself to a prospective employer. Once it is prepared you can upload it to You Tube and post the link to hiring managers. In making the video you should consider the following Dress How you dress will influence the viewer - ensure that you dress appropriately for the type of roles you are applying for. Echo Values talk about the values you hold and how you would apply them in a work role. Don t Sell Engage. Make it personal Be a real Human Being Google + Google s offering of social media set up primarily to compete with Facebook and it s dominance in the market. Has many of the features of facebook and twitter combined. Recent additions have been to allow business to interact with customers. This is still very new and will take a little while to settle down and become useful. However as it is native to Google it will offer enhanced functionality in terms of the way it interacts with other Google products and will undoubtedly enhance hit rates for people searching for you using the Google search engine. Online Portfolio Most commonly used by creative types as a place to show case their work. This could be artistic work such as paintings, photographic images, sculpture film or music. For the non- artistic user it could be a location to collate any reports or papers that you may have written. However, be careful to ensure that company confidential material is not included. Conclusion We have seen how Social Media can be used to open up a new dimension on traditional networking, by connecting you in a virtual way to both current and ex-colleagues and potential employers and opportunities. We have looked at how we each leave a Virtual presence on the internet that employers can use to find out more about us and how we can develop that further into a Personal Brand that we can market and promote to employers and contacts in our network alike and have considered how we might maintain and protect that brand. We have also looked at a number of the most commonly used forms of social networking tools and looked at their potential in terms of networking and job search. Page 13 of 14
Links to useful websites http://www.skillpages.com https://twitter.com/ http://www.linkedin.com/ http://en-gb.facebook.com/ www.blogger.com http://www.careerhubblog.com/ http://speckyboy.com/2009/07/07/50-creative-and-inspirational-personal-portfoliowebsites/ https://nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk/pages/home.aspx http://www.qrstuff.com/ www.jobsite.co.uk All the information included in this workbook is current at the time of printing and may be subject to change. Page 14 of 14